December 17, 2015

Dinner date with Eli

This morning, it was just Eli and me at home; Jerry and Noah had left the house at 3:30 AM! For weeks, Jerry and Noah had been planning on attending a Star Wars movie marathon--all seven of the films--at the theater. It's been fun to see them get so excited about it! Every morning, Jerry would write a note to put in Noah's lunch box, saying things like, "15 more days until the force awakens us". It's been a special little bond between the two of them. Last night, Jerry presented Noah with matching Star Wars t-shirts for them to wear today.

When I got up at 6:30, they had already finished watching the first movie! Jerry sent me some pictures between movies (they had a short intermission between each movie).

I knew Eli wouldn't be able to sit through all those movies, and he's not as much into Star Wars as Noah and Jerry are, so I made plans to take Eli out to a special dinner tonight after he got home from school.

I had a hard time getting moving this morning after I got Eli on the bus. I didn't sleep very well, and my stomach wasn't feeling too hot. I had a tempo run on the schedule, and I decided to go to the State Park to run. I set up my watch for a 5-minute warm-up, 16 minutes at tempo pace, and then an indefinite cool down.

Once I got there and started running, my stomach was feeling even worse. I was putting pressure on myself to hit a better pace than last week (last week, I ran 14 minutes at 8:10/mi), and I didn't want to psych myself out. I ran slowly to warm-up, and then when I hit the half-mile mark, I picked up my speed. At first, I thought it was going to go well, especially when I glanced down at my watch and saw a 7:-something pace.

It didn't last long. I was really struggling, and I could feel myself getting slower and slower. My stomach was really bothering me, and I started getting those weird abdominal muscle cramps that I was dealing with a few weeks ago. I started taking deep breaths, to hopefully ease the cramps. Eventually, I just thought, "I can't do it anymore!" and I looked down to see that my pace was 8:50, which is much slower than it should be for a tempo anyway. I took a short walk break, breathing in deeply to ease the cramping, and then started running again.

It was then that I realized I'd accidentally set the Garmin to 14 minutes at tempo, instead of 16. So, I knew that my tempo portion would be two minutes shorter. At first I was mad that I made that mistake, but with the cramping, I honestly doubted I'd make it through 14. I ended up taking two more walk breaks during the tempo portion, and then another during the cool down.

Overall, it was NOT a good run today, and it made me feel bummed out. I know that I have bad runs once in a while, and it won't be the last time; it still just causes me to doubt my training! Looking at the splits, though, I still managed 14 minutes at 8:42/mi, which was including three walk breaks. My goal pace for tempo is 8:23-8:36/mi, so I wasn't too far off. It just felt like it was because of last week's pace being 8:10. Hopefully it'll go better next week!

Eli was so cute this morning when we talked about our plans for tonight. I told him that I would take him to Olive Garden, which, when I was a kid, we thought of as the fanciest of restaurants ;) He said he wanted to come home after school so he could change into nice clothes and do his hair. Before I picked him up from school, I made sure to dress up a little, too, so he would notice the effort I was putting into our "date".

We came home so that he could change clothes, and then we were ready to head out. He looked so sweet!

I hadn't been to Olive Garden in YEARS, so I had no idea what I was going to order. I looked at the menu online, so I could try and come up with a plan, but I ended up just winging it. I ordered the Ravioli di Portobello (portobello-stuffed ravioli with some sort of cream sauce). It was insanely delicious! I was actually really surprised at just how good it was.

There were 7 ravioli for a total of 820 calories, but I only ate 4 of them. With my salad and three bites of Eli's dessert, my total for the meal was only 655 calories. Well worth it! Eli loved his dinner, too--he got the Five Cheese Ziti Al Forno--but we ended up taking most of it home, because he filled up on breadsticks ;)

It was really nice going out with just one of the boys at a time. I didn't have to break up fights between the kids or provide entertainment while we waited for our food. It was just Eli and me, so we were able to talk and enjoy each other's company. I'll have to make sure to do something like it with Noah, and Eli can do something with Jerry.

The kids only have three more school days until Christmas break! It feels like they just started this school year. Crazy!

Ok, I know I'm a HUGE dap but I actually teared up a little reading about your dinner date with Eli. I love that he wanted to put in nice clothes and fix his hair...so sweet. But I loved even more that you took a little extra time getting ready so he would feel special. I miss that age SO much. My son is 17 and the only time he even talks to me anymore is when he needs something or to be taken somewhere. He's a very sweet boy but his father isn't in the picture and well, mom knows nothing lol Thank goodness I have an almost 21yo daughter who loves doing things with me and talks to me every single day from college lol

I really love Noah and Jerry's bond over Star Wars and that Jerry got him so excited for their movie marathon. Just love hearing they families do fun things like this with their kids :)Bridgette

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